Jonathan McKinsey, a transgender engineering executive for the New York Times, was allegedly shot dead by his in-laws amid ongoing legal disputes between him and the family.
According to Bay Area police, McKinsey was shot Saturday afternoon just after 3 p.m. in Dublin, Calif. McKinsey, who served as the head of engineering and games player experiences for the Times, was found by a Dublin police officer on the ground outside of the Dublin Sports Grounds after a number of witnesses called in a shooting.
McKinsey had multiple gunshot wounds and was pronounced dead at the scene, authorities shared on Monday.
Shouyong Zhang, 77, and Shili Chen, 77, were later identified as two suspects in the killing. The married couple were later identified as McKinsey’s in-laws.
The pair are currently being held at the Santa Rita Jail amid pending charges.
The shooting followed a tense legal dispute between McKinsey and his wife, Candice Jang, who were battling over custody at the time of his death. Per legal documents obtained by NBC News, Jang had been granted a temporary restraining order against McKinsey, who had filed for divorce in December. However, per the New York Times, McKinsey filed his own restraining against Jang, alleging abuse against his wife and her parents. McKinsey, who was a transgender man, alleged in one court filing that his mother-in-law called him, as well as one of his sons, a “pervert” and a “monster” after the boy was allowed to wear a dress. He also claimed his father-in-law punched him in the chest while he recovered from double mastectomy surgery in 2010.
The estranged couple were set to face off in a hearing in October.
McKinsey, who was 40 at the time of his death, worked at the Times since 2023. He received a bachelor’s degree from Georgia Tech before completing his master’s at the University of California, Berkeley.
